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serrate gentian, sheared gentian, western fringe gentian, windmill fringe gentian

Habit Herbs annual or biennial, 0.2–6 dm.
Stems

branching diverse, often from base as well as distally.

Leaves

basal usually persistent and green at flowering, blades narrowly obovate to spatulate, oblanceolate, oblong, or linear (subsp. raupii) 0.5–3.5(–6) cm × 3–18 mm, apex rounded or obtuse, sometimes subacute or acute (subsp. detonsa), at least distal cauline blades oblanceolate, narrowly elliptic, lanceolate, or linear, (0.5–)1.5–6.5 cm × 1–7(–15) mm, apex rounded to obtuse, or usually acute (subsp. detonsa).

Peduncles

(0.3–)1–15 cm.

Flowers

often 1 per primary stem, occasionally 2–5;

calyx 7–30 mm, keel smooth, all or at least inner lobes less than 1.5 times as long as tube, lobes ovate to narrowly lanceolate, varying with subspecies;

corolla pale to deep blue or occasionally pale yellow or white, 12–50 mm, lobes oblong, oblong-lanceolate, oblong-triangular, oblong-orbiculate, or proximally oblong, distally obovate to suborbiculate, varying with subspecies, 5–20 × 4–12(–15) mm, margins proximally fringed or merely erose to dentate, distally dentate;

ovary ± short-stipitate.

Seeds

papillate, not winged.

Gentianopsis detonsa

Distribution
from USDA
North America; Eurasia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 4 (4 in the flora).

References to Gentianopsis detonsa in the Rocky Mountains from Montana south to New Mexico have been based on circumscriptions of the species that included G. thermalis. Specimens formerly so identified from Illinois, Indiana, and Ontario south of the James Bay region are G. virgata subsp. virgata. Those from Minnesota are G. virgata subsp. macounii.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Margins of corolla lobes dentate or erose, not fringed; halophytes of northern seacoasts (includ­ing Mackenzie Delta).
→ 2
2. Basal leaf blades oblanceolate, apex obtuse to acute; cauline leaf blades (if present) linear, apex usually acute; corolla lobes 0.5+ times as long as tube; seed coat papillate only toward ends.
subsp. detonsa
2. Leaf blades obovate to spatulate or oblan­ceolate or distal cauline leaf blades (if present) elliptic to lanceolate, apex rounded or obtuse; corolla lobes to 0.5 times as long as tube; seed coat completely papillate.
subsp. nesophila
1. Margins of most corolla lobes fringed proximally, dentate toward apex; plants of the interior, approaching Arctic coast only in Mackenzie Delta (subsp. raupii).
→ 3
3. Distinct rosette of basal leaves present at flowering, separated from cauline leaf blades; corolla lobes acute apically.
subsp. yukonensis
3. Basal leaves generally persistent but rosette not well developed, transitional to cauline leaves; corolla lobes rounded apically.
subsp. raupii
Source FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa Gentianaceae > Gentianopsis
Sibling taxa
G. barbellata, G. crinita, G. holopetala, G. macrantha, G. simplex, G. thermalis, G. virgata
Subordinate taxa
G. detonsa subsp. detonsa, G. detonsa subsp. nesophila, G. detonsa subsp. raupii, G. detonsa subsp. yukonensis
Synonyms Gentiana detonsa, Gentianella detonsa
Name authority (Rottbøll) Ma: Acta Phytotax. Sin. 1: 15. (1951)
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